Smelter Service, from Mount Pleasant, Tenn., will take over the operations of Meridian Aluminum Products Inc. in Island, Tenn. The announcement came during a special McLean Fiscal Court meeting last week.
Gary Pannell, president and general manager of Meridian, said Smelter Service was a good fit for the county.
"I think this is an excellent move for the county to make," Pannell said. "It is a good move for them and a good move for us."
Pannell said the decision to sell to Smelter Service came after the high natural gas prices this past year.
"We had a good business plan," he said. "We didn't expect natural gas prices tripling on us. We were on target and had plans for expansion identical to (Smelter Service's) plans. We already poured the concrete. We just didn't anticipate the rise in natural gas prices."
Large furnaces used in the melting process at these plants use large amounts of natural gas to operate.
Smelter Service first began looking for an additional location about three years ago, said Bill Toler, executive vice president of the company, because it needed more capacity. He said they opted for a Kentucky location because several customers are in the area.
Sandra Wood, president of the McLean County Industrial Foundation, said the foundation asked Hugh Haydon, president of the Owensboro-Daviess County Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc., to broker the deal and that his work was "fabulous."
McLean Fiscal Court passed a resolution to allow the sale of $3 million in industrial revenue bonds for the project. Smelter Service will actually repay the debt on the bonds, Judge-Executive Larry Whitaker said.
The county originally built the building for Mespar, a salt-reclamation facility that went bankrupt. It had leased the building to the industrial foundation, but voted Oct. 18th to sell the land to Smelter Service. McClean County (Tenn.) News